How did Washington like them Apples?
The Huskies could leave the Pac-12 but they couldn't escape Washington State, which won the Apple Cup with a vengeance.
It might have been a little early in the season for cigars, unless you’ve been keeping up with the smoke.
Washington State is a proud member of the Pac-2, although it should be known as The Orphanage. WSU and Oregon State were left behind during the Gold Rush in Reverse, in which four Pac-12 schools went to the Big Ten, four others joined the Big 12, and Stanford and Cal were adopted by the ACC. Since both WSU and OSU always thought they were neglected anyway, this was not surprising, but then Pat Chun, the WSU athletic director who had campaigned to keep his school in the picture, suddenly took a new job. At Washington, no less.
Kirk Schultz, the school’s president, did not have a scholarly reaction. “No fucking way,” he said. “If Pat had said it was the University of Iowa, Ohio State or Minnesota or pick whatever, I would have said, hey, we want you here but I understand. His timing was crappy. There’s never a great time, but there are times that are worse than others. I felt we were side by side, hand in hand, going through some challenging times. It’s profound, the disappointment.”
Cougar fans had already singled out Washington president Ana Mari Cauce, since she was given credit, or blame, for declining an Apple TV deal that might have kept everyone in place except for USC and UCLA.
But then Cougar fans hate Washington the same way they like breathing. Like a lot of college rivalries, this is based on lifestyle and geography. Washington State is eight miles from Idaho and 285 miles from Seattle, where the Huskies are. Beyond that, it’s work boots vs. Birkenstocks, F-150s vs. Volvos, [ragmatists vs. elitists. It was bitter enough when WSU folks felt judged. Now they felt betrayed.
However, Washington State and Washington still respected the Apple Cup. Usually the game ends the regular-season, on the final Saturday in November, with a wintry mix descending upon Pullman or Seattle. This five-year deal will move the Apple Cup into the early fall or late summer, and it will be held at the Seahawks’ stadium, as it was Saturday.
Beyond the politics, there was football intrigue. Washington got to the finals of the College Football Playoff last year and then lost coach Kalen DeBoer and virtually every significant player. It hired Jedd Fisch from Arizona, who might have been hoping quarterback Noah Fifita and receiver Tetairoa McMillan might join him. They did not, although Mississippi State transfer QB Will Rogers did. The Huskies were 2-0 against lower-crust competition.
But Washington State had something going. It whipped Texas Tech the previous week, 37-16, as quarterback John Mateer rumbled for 197 yards. Mateer, from LIttle Elm, Tex., was the replacement for Cameron Ward, who had transferred to Miami. Mateer was just as much of a problem for a Washington defense that is coordinated by Steve Belichick. He ran for the 25-yard touchdown, on a third-and-20, that gave the Cougars a 17-13 second-half lead.
Washington committed 16 penalties, one of which gave the Cougars a new possession, but had a chance at the end. On fourth-and-goal from the one, Fisch had Rogers run an option on the short side of the field. Not known for those skills, Rogers sprinted to his right, on the short side of the field, and pitched to Jonah Coleman, who had little room to maneuver. Kyle Thornton stopped him there, and Washington State coach Jake Dickert reached for his cigars, which he had ordered earlier in the week for just this moment.
“This is a big trophy,” Dickert said. “We might retire this trophy. It’s a Pac-12 trophy. It might stay with us for a long time and we’ll bring another one next year.”
And this came on the heels of the announcement that the Cougars have become part of the Pac-6. Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Colorado State will join The Orphanage, beginning in 2026. If two more schools can be persuaded, that would resurrect the old Pac-8.
But at this moment, it was more about grassroots than politics. “These guys stayed here, for this moment, to bring the trophy back to Pullman,” Dickert said. “If you can’t get behind this team at this time, I don’t know what more we can do.”
To put it into the blunt syntax of Cougar-speak: Realign this.
Other confetti:
Georgia 13, Kentucky 12: Georgia’s 28th consecutive SEC regular-season victory is a record, but was no sure thing. The same Kentucky offense that couldn’t budge South Carolina last week held the ball for 35:20 and did everything but penetrate the goal line. The Bulldogs haven’t given up a touchdown or suffered a turnover in three games, but needed a 17-yard run by Trevor Etienne to set up the only touchdown of the game.
UCF 35, TCU 34: Gus Malzahn’s team is 3-0 and a stealthy contender to win the Big 12. It was down 28-7 on the road in the second quarter, but saddled up for a comeback that ended when K.J. Jefferson, the Arkansas transfer, speared Kobe Hudson with a 20-yard touchdown in the final minute. P.J. Harvey had 180 yards in 29 carries and scored three times.
LSU 36, South Carolina 33: Everything was under review in this one except for the passion. The Gamecocks led 17-0 and might have cruised if freshman quarterback LaNorris Sellers hadn’t hurt his ankle; he had just streaked for a 75-yard touchdown. They also had two pick-six touchdowns called back. Both plays featured personal fouls by Kyle Kennard. The second one, in the fourth quarter, could have given the Gamecocks an 11-point lead, as Nick Emmanwori intercepted Garrett Nussmeier and went 100 yards. Kennard’s block wiped out Nussmeier and earned him a roughness penalty, but it came after the interception, when Nussmeier was a pursuer, not a passer. “We teach them to go after the quarterback whenever there’s an interception,” said South Carolina coach Shane Beamer. The Tigers, now 1-1 against teams known as USC, got a late TD from Josh Williams and survived a 49-yard field goal try by the Gamecocks at the end.
UNLV 23, Kansas 20: Yes, they’re the Runnin’ Rebels, and they’re 3-0 in football for the first time since 1984, when Randall Cunningham was their quarterback. To beat 20th-ranked Kansas on the road, UNLV needed an 18-play drive in the fourth quarter that consumed 9:11 and covered 75 yards, every one of them earned on the ground. Quarterback Matthew Sluka, a transfer from Holy Cross, had two incompletions on the drive, and the Rebels suffered a roughness penalty and a 7-yard loss before Kylin James barged over from the one-yard-line. Sluka was 7 for 18 passing but ran 19 times for 143 yards.